As the business school of a premier technological university, the Robert A. Foisie Business School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute integrates science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) into the undergraduate and graduate programs.
Consistent with WPI’s mission of theory and practice, a project-based approach to learning and doing pervades the WPI Foisie Business School’s curriculum. Our students take advantage of the university’s strong relationships with technology-intensive organizations around the world and a network of more than 50 global project centers.
Graduates of the WPI Foisie Business School are prepared to lead at the intersection of technology and business, applying entrepreneurial thinking and harnessing the power of technology and teamwork to solve complex human problems.
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"Our world requires strategic thinkers and leaders who are innovative in ways that yield societal impact while also engaging diverse constituencies," says Rev. Dr. Debora Jackson. Learn more about the Dean of the Foisie Business School and her vision for a transformative business education.
How do leaders work across disciplines, organizations, cultures, and networks to co-create and implement novel solutions, sustainable human-centered change, and entrepreneurial ventures? Over the past twenty years, this question has motivated Elizabeth’s research, innovative project-based teaching, and efforts to advance organizational transformation and policy change to forge more equitable and creatively vibrant organizations, cities, and fields of enterprise.
Rob joins WPI from Fidelity Investments, where he spent 23 years in the finance industry, holding multiple executive leadership positions including VP of Strategy and Planning, VP Human Resource Systems, and VP Finance, Procurement, and Accounting Systems. Rob also previously held positions in both the public and private sectors for companies in the manufacturing and nonprofit industries.
Purvi has 'done' marketing and now she 'teaches' marketing at the WPI Foisie Business School. She has a diverse industry experience in the marketing/brand management function of mid-size to large corporations across consumer goods, retail, and real estate verticals. In academics, she aspires to play her role as a researcher (knowledge creation) and teacher (knowledge dissemination). Her research questions, in the context of discovery, attempt to explain and understand interesting and challenging marketing phenomena that have not received much research attention.
Being an educator is more than just distributing facts and figures; it's demonstrating the importance of this knowledge in a way that can be relevant for every learner. It's not truly knowledge until the student can grasp and apply it. I consider myself to be an advocate for knowledge - encouraging learning and providing the tools needed to be successful and independent thinkers. I take any opportunity possible to introduce new technologies and social networking behaviors that I feel are relevant into my daily classroom activities.
Professor Gonsalves is currently a full time instructor in the Foisie Business School. He is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Management Science.
Professor Gonsalves’ career has spanned thirty five years in the technology field, having held positions in design, applications, sales, marketing, business development and management. He is the holder of 9 patents and has presented at a variety of industry conferences in the area of RFID.
As one of my students once said, the only people who do not use accounting are people who are no longer alive. Yet, few people understand accounting well enough to use it to make informed decisions.
Dr. Hansong Pu has decades of managerial and entrepreneurial experiences with international corporations and small businesses. He spent his past eight years teaching at Hangzhou Dianzi University in China and WPI. Meanwhile, he worked with colleagues at both universities to start collaboration programs that serve the students and faculties on both sides, including the WPI China IQP Center.
Dr. Kordzadeh joined the faculty of the Foisie Business School at WPI in July 2017. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration with an emphasis on Information Technology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. His research interests include health informatics, social media, information privacy, and business intelligence and analytics.
Since arriving at WPI in 1990, I have framed my role in the classroom as helping technically-minded students to become more cognizant and mindful of the complex human and behavioral dimensions of life in organizations. I have done this in a variety of ways from experiential exercises to digital storytelling to classroom-as-organization designs.
I am a researcher on organization behavior, people analytics and entrepreneurship related topics, with particular focus on applying advanced econometrics and big data based research designs. I have particular expertise in the digital economy, including Internet video, sports analytics, and electronic gaming I also teach classes on general business strategy, technology management and entrepreneurship.
Since my first day of teaching, I believed that I loved being in the classroom. I enjoy my role as an instructor because it enables me to see directly the outcome of my effort. I like the fact that as someone in higher education, I have the opportunity to make a positive influence on a young person's life. I make every effort to not only deliver the material of the course, but to develop a mentoring relationship with each student to help them grow as individuals and strive for success.
I teach both graduate and undergraduate courses, as well as advise PhD projects, IQPs and MQPs. I enjoy teaching because it's a dynamic and innovative process that challenges me to continually evaluate and adjust my teaching strategies to prepare my students for today’s global and competitive business environment. Teaching is also one the most rewarding experiences in my career because it allows me to witness my students' growth and accomplishments.
Jed’s organizational behavior experience is shaped through 15+ years as a human resource leader. His experience includes work as a Change Agent, Director/Manager, and Internal and External Consultant. His consulting services focus on performance management, total rewards, HR analytics, and workplace learning, and his research and teaching experience includes the areas of organizational performance improvement, competency identification, and rewards management.
WPI provides an environment that values both teaching and research, which is ideal for me. I enjoy teaching at WPI because students are interested in learning and willing to work hard. My teaching focuses on how business, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations can best use computing technologies, such as database systems, electronic health records systems, and mobile apps. Students in my classes learn to design computing applications that meet the needs of organizations.
I enjoy teaching at WPI because students bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to their learning, and I am often inspired by their optimism. My teaching also reflects topics that motivate me: detailed process design in our Industrial Engineering program, improving healthcare delivery as part of the Health Systems Innovation certificate, and exploring the implications of operational excellence in our MBA program.
I enjoy teaching because it allows me to interact with students who have the potential to make the world a better place using technology. I continually innovate in my courses to ensure students enjoy the learning experience, learn the key concepts and skills related to information systems through real world examples, have an opportunity to learn from each other, learn to present themselves as professionals, and most importantly learn to use or develop technology to make a difference.
Prior to arriving at WPI in 2010, I held tenure-track positions with the University of Wisconsin system. I have visited at Cal Poly-SLO, University of Toledo, and Arizona State University. My teaching centers on software development, large business systems, and innovative uses of IT. My overarching research addresses organizational aspects of human-computer interaction with special emphasis on e-health, computer-mediated communication, and technology support for software development teams.
I am interested in manufacturing and industrial engineering. My main interests lie at the intersection of manufacturing processes and the financial aspect of the business that relates to these processes. I see my mission as enabling students to become leaders in a business environment and helping them extract value from the processes that drive the organization. We do this by using tools like axiomatic design and Lean Six Sigma methods.
Joe Zhu is Professor of Operations Analytics in the Foisie Business School, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is an internationally recognized expert in methods of performance evaluation and benchmarking using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and his research interests are in the areas of operations and business analytics, productivity modeling, and performance evaluation and benchmarking. He has published and co-edited several books focusing on performance evaluation and benchmarking using DEA and developed the DEAFrontier software.
I am Associate Professor of Operations and Industrial Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), with courtesy professorships in Mathematical Sciences and Data Science. I hold a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. My objective is to use science and technology to assist real human need by improving systems that serve vulnerable peoples, such as refugees and asylum seekers, survivors of human trafficking, and children in the foster care system.
I enjoy teaching an interrelated series of topics that combine current industrial methodologies with the basics from academic study that form the foundations for commercial practice. The WPI classes give me an opportunity to share, mentor and steward students through simulated and practical problems, guiding them to plausible and realistic solutions.
The application of Industrial Engineering and mathematical knowledge has always been a rewarding challenge for me. Over the past several years, I have focused my research in the healthcare industry, which is particularly exciting given the current debates on healthcare reform. Current projects include evaluating anti-human trafficking efforts, computationally characterizing episodes of care from health insurance claim records and examining the impact of physician incentives on patient outcomes.
What I do: I teach approximately 10 different courses across the schools of business, electrical engineering and computer science. I also do a certain amount of research and publish the occasional paper.
Joseph Sarkis joined WPI as a faculty member in July 2013. He previously served as a faculty member at Clark University and the University of Texas at Arlington. His teaching and research interests are in the fields of operations, supply chain management, and sustainability. He is the author or co-author of over 400 publications. His research is widely cited and earned the designation of highly cited researcher in 2016, 2017, and 2018 from Thomson-Reuters/Clarivate Analytics (Web-of-Science).
Dean Jackson discussed her vision for the Foisie Business School which sits at the nexus of STEM and business-an important combination for 21stCentury career opportunities View the episode here.
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